Flames of Myth
by Justa Little Puppy
Summary: Thatch and his brother have an encounter of the mythical kind.


**Puppy's Post It: I'm 2 days late, but happy birthday Thatch! :D This is also something I'm doing for me, since me and Thatch share a birthday, but I'm gonna thank all you nice peeps who wished me a happy birthday, arf! You know who you is ;P Anyway, I have to go soon so I'd better hurry this up... Please read, hope you enjoy, and PRETTY PLEASE leave a review? :,3 BTW! Dis is an AU (Which I forgot to put before this is an edit u.u) So that's for all who were wondering :D NOW REVIEW (Read first please n.n") AND GET YOUR BISCUITS XD**

**Disclaimer: Oda! Can I have One Piece for my birthday? Or at least the Whitebeard pirates? Marco? Ace? Thatch? Someone? Please? QAQ**

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"Stefan! Here boy! Here big guy!"

Thatch sighed when he got no woof in reply, rubbing the back of his head as he trudged forward through the thick foliage. If he didn't find that dog soon, Izou was gonna have his head on a silver platter.

The cross-dresser had been right to be skeptic about leaving the dog with him, however much Thatch didn't want to admit it, but it wasn't like it was his fault! Ace had a habit of unhooking the furry brute from his leash because 'he should run free' or some stupidness, and the dog always took it as an invitation to run as far away as he could just because he knew it annoyed the living out of everyone except his releaser. Thatch was pretty sure Ace did it just for the sake of being irritating too. That was the last time he'd let Ace hold the leash...

Thatch sighed. And probably not the last time he'd think that.

Ah well. There was nothing he could do about it now other than search, in any case. _"And Ace had better still be searching, too."_

Why did he even volunteer to take Stefan out to do his business, anyway? He loved the dog, sure, but unfortunately the stuff the dog ate didn't always think so highly of him. The mutt had hell come out his enormous furry ass on more than one occasion. And then he'd agreed to let Ace of all people come with him, the only person who dared let the troublesome pooch loose outside then laugh about it. Stefan always came back, not surprisingly, but he also always managed to do something destructive that cost a fortune (which somehow always came out of Thatch's pocket). He must have seriously not been thinking things through.

Thatch grunted slightly as he stumbled over a tree root, clutching the plant's coarse bark to regain his balance. Overhead, breaks in the leaves of the huge trees filtered moonlight down to the moss covered ground, and fireflies glowed a warm orange as they fluttered around a low growing bush. Somewhere nearby, a bird rebellious to the sun was singing a haunting tune that made the perfect background music for the surreal imagery of the whole scene. The red-head had to blink and make sure he hadn't fallen and coincidently not bonked his head, so unreal was the whole thing.

After a moment of staring in awe, the man whipped out his phone and snapped a picture. This was definitely one of the most gorgeous sights he'd ever seen, he didn't even think this forest could get like this. Thatch glanced around, suddenly on a photo hunt, because he could and he was tired of trudging around searching for a dog that would turn up on his own time. Let the mutt-

Hold up.

What.

The.

Hell?!

Thatch nearly turned around and walked away. Not 20 feet away, a little rocky clearing shimmered silver in the moon's glow. But that wasn't the only thing glowing. There was a blue light. A soft, wide spreading blue light emitting from the back of a rhino sized rock.

_"Damn, the aliens are already here!"_

That was the only sensible explanation. Aliens. It had to be the aliens. He knew they'd come. He'd seen the movies, dammit.

But even with that in mind, a stupidly curious part of his mind forced him to edge around the clearing.

"This is so stupid this is so stupid you are so like the idiot blonde in the movie who dies first you're so stupid..." Thatch muttered to himself, edging around a tree that was in his way. All he needed was some blonde hair and make up to make that true. But he wanted to see them. At least, long enough to snap a decent picture. This was _SO_ going on his blog. Er, which he didn't have of course.

Closer, closer, step out a bit behind that tree- _HOLY SHIT_.

"HOLY SHIT."

It was a bird. It was a big bird. It was a damn big bird. It was a damn big blue bird. It was a fucking flaming damn big blue bird. Holy shit.

And it was staring right at him. The enormous bird's eyes were half lidded but definitely gazing at him, as if it had been expecting him all along. It's flaming feathers burned brighter than any fire he'd ever seen, yet the grass around the feathered creature remained intact.

The blue Thatch had misjudged as just blue was actually an array of greens, blues, golds, and a flicker of purple every now and then cascading down its feathers and making the creature look even more impossibly majestic. And the plumage... An ornate trail of blazing gold circles trailed out behind the bird, flicking up and down gently on a new level of unique.

It was breathtaking, looking at this creature. Thatch numbly realized he'd dropped his phone at some point, and slowly bent down to grab it. The bird's eyes followed him down, gaze so intense yet almost bored that Thatch paused in mid bend to shiver under it. Suddenly, the bird raised it's golden beak and trilled melodiously at him.

"Crap!" Thatch immediately rose and slammed his back against the tree, breathing hard. That'd scared the living out of him. Cursing under his breath once more when he realized he had yet to grab his phone, he inched forward, watching the now silent bird warily. The creature just continued to regard him with that careful gaze of its.

After a while of shuffling, Thatch stopped. Was getting his phone really worth possibly being maimed by a giant flaming bird? The red-head pondered this while taking a step back, his mind unconsciously made up already. Thatch had done some pretty stupid stuff in his life, but even he knew getting any closer to a huge bird that was _on fire_ was more than likely a bad decision. He glanced up from the phone he had been staring longingly at, only to nearly piss his pants because that thing had_ stood up._

Now easily Thatch's height, if not a bit taller, the bird continued to stare at him for an uncomfortable amount of time with blazing blue orbs. Thatch frowned and took another nervous step back.

"O-Oi, uh, bird, sit back down, man." Thatch managed to stutter out quietly, raising his hands placatingly and giving it an uncomfortable little grin. That was seriously all he could think to do at the moment. The bird payed his words no heed though and actually began to take tentative steps forward, like it expected him to dart any second now, which was very likely. Thatch didn't dare move though. He was pretty sure he was sweating by the time the bird was 4 feet away from him, looking him up and down curiously.

Thatch chanced a glance behind the bird, eyes shifting carefully to try and look at where the bird had previously been sitting. Something... Well, _something_ had caught his eye. He had no idea what it was, but he knew he had seen something while the bird had advanced and he found himself wondering if that thing had layed eggs. It was a rather insignificant thought for the moment, but he could feel his heart pounding in his head and all that noise didn't leave much room for sensible thinking.

The bird took another step. Thatch shifted his eyes back to the blazing creature immediately, narrowing them at it nervously. Taking his eyes off the damn thing for just second was hard...

Slowly, he looked back behind the bird and craned his neck. He caught sight of something fabric looking, like a shirt, possibly nesting mater-

"ACE?!"

The bird jumped a foot and kicked out at him, Ace started awake and Thatch nearly choked on the gasp he sucked in. Holy mother of holy. That thing had been sitting on... On _Ace?!_

"Huh, wh-wha? I'm still look- HOLY SHIT." Ace cut off his own obvious lie, scrambling to his feet with huge eyes while his red-headed brother whirled out of range at the last second from the bird's fiery talons. Adrenaline suddenly pumping, Thatch turned to the flustered looking bird and shouted with way more confidence then he was actually feeling.

"OI, SHOO YA DAMN OVERSIZED POULTRY!" He scooped up a rock on the ground and hurled it at the creature, eyes flashing. Whatever the hell that thing was, it could go ahead and scare him pissless and nearly disembowel him with a kick, but it was _NOT_ allowed to have his little brother as its chair or chick or whatever reason it was sitting on him for.

The rock hit the bird squarely on the head, making it pause for a moment as if stunned but strangely not hurt, before it lifted its head and screeched loudly. The sound was even more surreal than the scene the forest painted for Thatch not long ago, even more unreal seeming and mysterious. Then the fire bird looked between the two, eyes wide with an emotion Thatch wasn't sure he could pinpoint. But it was something akin to... Hurt?

Large fiery wings of all kinds of colors spread suddenly, reaching a span larger than any other bird Thatch or Ace had ever seen. There was a brief moment where the two stared breathlessly at creature's majesty, basking unknowingly in its blaze. The moment ended as quickly as it begun however, the wings beat, and the bird was off.

It shot into the air surprisingly quick for such a large beast, spiraling upward faster and faster toward the full moon in the cool night sky. Wisps of blue and gold flames trailed around and behind it as it went with unmatched grace, and Thatch suddenly found himself weak at the knees just staring after it.

After about 5 minutes, the creature managed to disappear into the night even with all that flame. The pompadoured man looked away almost a quarter of an hour after it'd gone though, shaking his head, and strode over to the freckled man who had long fallen back on the ground. Crouching in front of his little brother, Thatch frowned when he saw the man was still staring up at the sky with utter disbelief.

"Ace," Thatch started, giving his brother a quick look over to check for any injuries. "Are you alright?! Come on, stand up, we need to get the hell outta here before that..." Suddenly he wasn't sure what to call it. Not even 'thing', would work. "... Whatever, comes back!"

Ace gradually returned to earth, looking from the sky that still glistened a bit with gold, blue, and green specks to his concern faced brother slowly. After a moment of hazy staring, he nodded. "I really hate my narcolepsy sometimes." Was all he murmured, gripping Thatch's shoulders and letting the man help him to his feet.

"Yeah, me too bro. ...Fuck, what was that though?" Thatch muttered, already tugging his brother toward the edge of the clearing as soon as he was half steady.

"...A flaming peacock?" Ace sighed, picking up his pace a bit so it didn't feel like Thatch was half-dragging him.

Thatch grinned slightly at him, keeping the sky in his peripheral even as he turned to look at the younger man. "That seems about right."

Ace smiled back shakily. "It actually reminded me of that mythical bird..." Ace began, tilting his head.

"I know which bird you're talking about. Id highly doubt that we just had a close encounter of the mythical kind with a freaking phoenix, but I mean yeah, giant flaming bird fits the description. We should've taken a picture."

Thatch mentally cursed, now realizing he'd forgotten his phone, but he'd be damned to turn back and get it.

"What, you wanna turn back, look for that thing and ask it to pose while we snap some photos?"

"Shut up."

The two brother's continued in silence. An unspoken promise to not speak of what just happened to_ anyone_ passed between them in that short conversation, even if it seemed like a good thing to do. But it wasn't like anyone would believe them, they hardly believed it themselves, making them feel the need to not say anything about it altogether.

And somewhere, far in the distance, something crowed a strange, lonesome song. They paused a moment.

"...Holy shit." Thatch and Ace muttered one more time simutanously, knowing exactly what was making that unnatural sound.

For whatever reason, they didn't know.

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**Puppy's Post It: I loved writing this, so I think I did ok with it, but the ending really sucked in my opinion =.= It's supposed to make you think though, I guess. Mer. So what do y'all think peoples? Drop a review, please! Arf arf, and do you think I should continue this? Cuz while I was writing a got this idea for a story, but I was like "Do you seriously wanna have ANOTHER story? -.-" to myself. What do you people think? Leave it the way it is or let my plot puppy free~ AND YEAH. I LIKE CALLING THE PLOT PUPPIES. SUE ME OnO Leave a review and tell meh what ya think, please! You get biscuits if you do, arf arf~ XD**


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